Name: Heather Harris / Nemeta Salê

Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Medium: Sacred Salts

Heather Harris is the kind of person that creates home wherever she finds herself. She knows in her bones that the boundary of where we begin and end is blurry at best, and that coming home means tuning in and listening. To ourselves. To the earth. To each other. 

Heather grew up in Northern Utah in Ogden, and although she moved around a lot she said that she always carried with her a sense of home. After a stint outside of Utah in her 20s, Heather made her way back to the valley and in the process of reconnecting to our salty little city she found herself answering the call of the earth and its elements, particularly salt. She didn’t know why, or how, or what the pull was, but as a good listener does, Heather kept her ear to the ground and followed the intuitive tug, and in 2017 she started making her own blend of sacred salts.

Heather will tell you that when she first started it wasn’t that she had a burning desire to make these salts, rather she felt called to it. “Whether you call it the muse or the universe or nature, I’m just following every subtle guidance. Over a decade now, following this thread to minerals and the plant kingdom in general, it’s like I’m learning their language.

I work with the land and our relationship to it, not ownership but rather stewardship.

Whether working with a business owner or homeowner, it’s this re-orientation of what our relationship actually is with a space. The materials, the land, the plants, the animals and soil, these beings that have been here before us and will be here long after we’re gone.”  

Heather’s overarching goal is to build a more conscious and loving way to coexist and be in close relationship with one another and the earth, so when it comes time to create she says that what’s most important to her is using as many local products as possible. Nearly 70% of the flowers and herbs she uses are grown in her garden and the remainder are sourced from a local apothecary. And lucky for us, that persistent feeling of home and grounding familiarity is infused in the products she makes and shares with us. 

We asked Heather how we can implement what she’s creating into our daily lives, and about the direct line from her salts to Home.

How did you discover that salts were an essential part of creating home? In some ways it’s been in front us of all along, with salt being on our dinner table. Salt is such a profound amplifier of flavor and intention in collaboration with whatever it is paired with. It soaks up the elements around it as well as strengthening them, creating these two forces of harmonization. 

What advice would you give folks that are wanting to use your salts for home practice? What would that intention be? I feel like the best place to start is with a simple intention or curiosity. You can start with the four corners of your yard or the perimeter of your house or apartment. You can also sprinkle them on your front door or put them in bowls at your front door. You may offer some to a tree, plant or flower that you notice on walks around your neighborhood. This is a simple way to begin your connection in grounding, and how you want to bring Home into your physical body, and create a more safe and resonant space within your physical home as well as your home on this earth. If you'd like to use them inside, pick 2-4 spots to begin with and put the salts in a bowl allowing them to draw out impurities, toxins or even negative energy. I leave that bowl out where the energy feels most dense for anywhere between a week, up to month. When it's time to clear that energy away, I offer that salt either to a body of water like a local river, or even just a tree, flower or plant outside that you’d like to give gratitude to. You can also add these salts to your bath water or as a shower scrub. This is a great way to connect with the purifying and nourishing aspects of these salts and allow yourself to receive the intentions you’re setting. 

During these times, why does it help to have an intentional homing practice with salts? During these unstable and uncertain times the message that I’ve been getting from having this intentional homing practice with salts is that there is always hope. And the more I focus on my service and who and what I’m here to serve, then hope remains alive in me. The vision that I see for our homes and communities, that’s the vision that I’m holding when I’m creating these salts. Above all else, my dream is for everyone to feel a sense of safety and belonging, and to me these two qualities of life really must be established in each of our personal lives. Working with these salts has allowed me to anchor, deepen and ground into my own safety, even when things may feel crazy, I know that I am safe.

You can find Heather's blend of sacred salts here at cityhome. Come stop by the shop and pick up a jar of TLC for your home or home-body.